Key Considerations for a Successful Hyperion Planning Implementation

June 29, 2010 Mark Hite, Practice Manager Ranzal & Associates

Agenda
INTRODUCTIONS KEY PROJECT PHASES RECOMMENDED BUILD TECHNIQUES
Application Definition Delineate Plan Types Define Dimensionality Metadata Integration Data Integration Building a Planning Model Development of Forms Development of Calculations Process Flow / Control Define Security

Introductions

About Ranzal

Founded in 1996, Ranzal has implemented Hyperion solutions for 500+ companies (800+ projects since the acquisition)
Oracle / Hyperion Platinum Partner - Highest Status Hyperion Americas Reseller & Partner of the Year
1999, 2005 & 2007

Certified EPM Consultants & Instructors Vertical Expertise with High-Profile Clients from Coast to Coast
East Coast & West Coast Presence Support Business Applications from start to finish

Sound Project Methodology Insures Project Success One of the Largest Hyperion Practices in the U.S. Best Planning & Essbase Practices with Best HFM Practice
Hyperion Development utilizes Ranzal for Planning, Essbase and HFM product direction

Regarded in the industry as one of the "BEST at leveraging OLAP technology to develop EPM Applications

Application & Industries

Our team has been involved in 800+ successful EPM Implementations
Financial Consolidation & Management Reporting Budgeting & Planning Profitability Management Solutions Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Infrastructure Planning and Performance Tuning Business Process and Project Management

Strong client portfolio across leading Industry Sectors including

Financial Services Insurance Retail / Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturing Pharmaceutical & Hospital Hospitality / Travel / Entertainment High Technology / E-business Energy / Utilities Distribution Government Other

Certified consultants and instructors

Hyperion Essbase, Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Financial Management, HPCM, Hyperion Enterprise, Hyperion Strategic Finance, Hyperion BI+ (Web Analysis, Financial Reports, Interactive Reporting, Production Reporting), Hyperion Data Relationship Management, Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management, Data Services (including ETL, Warehousing)

Key Project Phases

Project Phases
Analyze/Design Build Infrastructure Build Test Rollout Back-End Build Front-End Build

Application Install

Infrastructure (Simple)

Infrastructure (Complex)

Analyze vs. Design

Analyze

Design

Requirements unknown or undefined Existing business processes need to be updated Existing business processes not known or documented Desire to re-engineer to align with business vision or industry best practices

Key requirements are understood Future business processes are known Basic understanding of technology being used for build

Deliverables As-Is vs. To-Be Processes Functional Requirements Technical Requirements Project Roadmap & Timeline (High Level)

Deliverables Design Document Proof of Concept / Prototype * Infrastructure Architecture Finalize Scope, Schedule & Budget Project Strategies (Training, Testing, etc)

Biggest Risks to Planning Projects

LACK OF AVAILABLE METADATA & DATA

Clients often underestimate the effort required to source and validate data and master data, and this is a frequent reason for project delays The level of effort must be aligned with the quality of data, number of data sources, and degree of change (e.g., new COA)

LACK OF CLIENT RESOURCES

Technical It is critical to identify the administrators of the new system early on, and ensure they are properly trained for rollout Functional - Clients sometimes do not dedicate enough resources to the project effort as the project is viewed as simply a technology implementation

LACK OF CLARITY IN BUSINESS PROCESSES

Planning systems by their nature attempt to predict the future. Clients sometimes have difficulty identifying which disparate elements of their planning process should go into the application, particularly if different areas of the organization have different models.

Critical Success Factors

Clearly Defined and Communicated Project Goals Key Stakeholder Participation and Approval Finance and IT Involvement Throughout Entire Project Clearly Defined, Reviewed, and Approved Application Design Ownership and Accountability for Project Tasks Thorough Quality Assurance and Testing Communication of Company-wide Benefits Proper Administrator and End User Training Consistent Project Management

Planning Design Recommended Practices

Basic Build Approach

Application Definition Delineate Plan Types Define Dimensionality Metadata Integration Data Integration Building a Planning Model Development of Forms Development of Calculations Process Flow / Control Define Security

Application Definition

SINGLE PLANNING APPLICATION

Allows for three custom plan types Two modules Workforce & Capex

APPLICATION SETUP
Classic EPMA

COMMON PLAN TYPES

Core GL Account, Entity Revenue Product, Customer Salary / Workforce Employee, Position Capital / Capex Asset Category, Projects, etc. Sales Customer, Sales Rep Balance Sheet / Cash Flow

Application Definition

SINGLE APPLICATION BENEFITS

Metadata is shared across an application Common Versioning, Scenarios between plan types Business Rule Efficiency within same app (XREF) Shared Interface for forms and rules between plan types Leverage common set of task lists, right click menus, smart lists, and personal variables

MULTIPLE APPLICATION USE CASES

Common for separate operating units w/ disparate planning processes Allows for distinct processing windows US vs. Intl Security Financials vs. Salary Detail Ran out of plan types

Delineate Plan Types

WHAT ARE THE CAPEX / WORKFORCE MODULES?
A set of pre-built forms, rules, and menus for planning Salary and Capital expenditures. Pre-built functionality fully customizable Out of the box functionality to calculate:
WFP Salaries, Payroll Taxes, Benefits, etc. Based on attributes associated with the employee. Capex Depreciation, Capital Spending by Asset Categorization.

EXPECTATIONS
No one will use the modules out of the box with no customization. Key is to use out of the box functionality with the right blend of customization. Expected customization includes:
Updating Smart List attributes for use within an organization Modification to forms / rules to allow for budget & forecast processes that converge. Updating metadata Employees, Asset Category, etc. Adding a requisition number input field

Delineate Plan Types

WHEN DO I NEED A NEW PLAN TYPE
A model needs a different set of dimensionality
Revenue modeling for the organization is done by product and customer Salary modeling is done by employee and position Project Planning is done by Project Number Capital modeling is done by asset classification

Inter-dimensional Irrelevance
Does my Core GL plan type need Product, Employee and / or Project #? Impacts performance of forms, business rules, and reports. Want to minimize number of stored dimensions for each plan type.

IMPACTS OF A NEW PLAN TYPE

Data Movements between Plan Types Additional Essbase Cube to optimize Metadata & Data Integration Considerations

Define Dimensionality

DIMENSION
Stored hierarchies within an application Core Accounts, Entities, Time, Years, Scenario, Versions Revenue Core + Product, Customer, Sales Person Capital Core + Asset Category, Project Salary Core + Employee, Position

ATTRIBUTE
Associated with a base dimension A dimension member can be associated with a single attribute member from an attribute dimension. Examples
Start Date (Employee) Address (Customer) Brand (Product) Growth, Productivity, Maintenance (Project)

Define Dimensionality

SMART LIST
A member in an outline (often an account) that is represented as a drop down within the data grid. Smart Lists can be used to drive business rules Smart Lists cannot be sliced and diced like dimensions * Smart Lists can be reported on within Hyperion Reports Stored as numeric value in Essbase Textual Value show in Planning Forms Can be predefined in Essbase Smart Lists No adapter, load right to tables 11.1.2 supports model to ASO for increased reporting capabilities

Define Dimensionality

DATA ELEMENT (TEXT / DATE)

Allow user to input text and date directly into a cell in Planning Can leverage in Hyperion Reports

Text stored as numeric lookup relationally HSP_TEXT_CELL_VALUE Date stored as number 20090101

Can be predefined in Essbase No adapter, load right to tables

Metadata Integration

METADATA MANAGEMENT VS. ETL TOOLS

They are not the same thing A metadata management tools provides you with a graphical interface to manage your metadata across disconnected applications. An ETL tool moves data from one place to another

METADATA MANAGEMENT TOOLS EPMA

Relatively new tool (BPMA,) Essentially DRM for EPM Applications Ability to synch Planning, HFM & Essbase dimensions across multiple applications V11 Stable, Much Improved Update via Interface Tables ETL, or Flat File EPMA File Generator Creates ADS Files Full blown metadata management tool Supports metadata management across any toolset Hyperion, ERP, etc. Agnostic read from any source, write to any source Does not have adapters to source / target systems Flat file extracts created from DRM to load into Planning

DRM

Metadata Integration
ETL TOOLS
ODI HAL Replacement Limited Use ODI Bundled with EPM toolset Planning must be a source or target to use Relational Staging Repository where a lot of the work is done ELT Extract, Load and Transfer Tool DIM Adapters that connect directly to Planning Additional Licensing Costs For Informatica shops Functionally very similar to ODI HAL Not an option for new clients Still works in 11X for legacy clients but not supported

OTHER UPDATE METHODS

Essbase Outline Load Batch Utility Manual Update

Data Integration
SOURCES
General Ledger Lawson, Oracle, Peoplesoft, SAP, Great Plains Payroll Ceridian, Lawson HRIS Fixed Assets Lawson, Oracle Project, Navision Project Tracking Oracle Project, JDE Billing System Order Management EDW Manual Load File Collect via Planning Form
Currency Rates Benefit Rates (FICA Max, FICA %)

INTEGRATION OPTIONS
Essbase Load Rules
SQL Interface Flat Files MAXL Automation Simple ETL

ODI / DIM / HAL

ETL Tools, use when there is heavy file manipulation

Data Integration

Building a Planning Model KEY CONSIDERATIONS

What data is needed to facilitate input? What data needs to be collected from end users? Are there supporting drivers that must be input? Are there calculations that need to be processed before input? Read vs. Write on data form elements Are there calculations that need to be processed after input? Before Input?

TIPS
Break the process into steps if possible Use menus or task lists to drive navigation Simplify the user experience, provide tools to facilitate navigation Try not to clutter and overcomplicate a form

Development of Forms

Development of Forms

PERFORMANCE
Balance performance with functionality Load Performance 3 seconds or less Save Performance 3 seconds of less Hone business rules
Focus on fewer blocks FIX (Entity), FIX (Scenario, Version) Dont calculate more than you need to Balance form calculations with an hourly sweep Poorly performing business rules can stack up and kill Essbase performance

PERFORMANCE TIPS
Suppress Missing Rows vs. Suppress Blocks Rows vs. Columns vs. Page Isolate Performance Issue Form vs. Rules Query Issue Size or Poorly Designed Essbase Cube? Block Size Balancing Act Query vs. Calculations

Development of Forms
DESIGN TIPS
Large Sparse Dims on Rows (Improvements to GUI in Talleyrand) Turn on Attribute Display
Suppress Missing Block

Show member formulas

Development of Forms
DESIGN TIPS
Startup Message to Guide Blank Forms

Column Definition
Drivers & Commentary in BegBalance Member Data Values in IDESC (YearTotal)

Development of Forms
Use Flag Members to drive form layout
Smart List to drive Flag

UDAs to drive form definition

Flag Member Set flag based on UDA definition and Smart List Selection

Development of Forms
Simple Form

Enhanced Forms

Development of Forms
Control Navigation with a Menu

Development of Calculations

Development of Calculations
TIPS & TRICKS

Calculations & Forms Should be Developed in Tandem

Calculation Manager
Graphical Web Based Rules Builder Pre-built Templates Requires EPMA Integration (Talleyrand support for Classic) Ability to Convert HBR to CM Rules

Alternatives to Drive Calculations

Member Formulas Business Rules / Calc Manager Rules Essbase Member Calc Formula

Development of Calculations
Essbase Member Formula
Simple Member Calculation Dependencies - Outline Order Important Calculations that dont require user input Calculations dont require moving data between plan types Can be run upon save of form Calc members on form

Development of Calculations
Business Rules
Allow for user input to the rule Allow for passing through variables from the form to the rule Multiple Members Calculated Upon Form Save with Dependencies Can be launched on save, or from a right click menu Typically more procedural than member formula Leverage BR to move data between plan types

Development of Calculations
Essbase Member Calc Script
Write multiple member formulas in an Essbase member Place member on form, and hide Allows for procedural member formulas ala Business Rules Run on save of form Cannot allow user input to calc Cannot move data between plan types

Development of Calculations
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Minimize Calculations
Run Time Prompts Align w/ Page IANCESTORS (Run Time Prompt) to aggregate instead of CALC DIM

Beware Run on Save / Load Launch Rules from Right Click Menu Sequences
Calculation in Current Plan Type XREF Data to Core Plan Type

XREF Dangers
Slow across applications Create Block Issues
Create Blocks in Business Rule Schedule hourly sweep to catch any issues - DATAEXPORT

Currency Conversion Limitations

Rates stored High Manual Input of Rates Pros Entity has requirement to plan in different local currencies

Process Flow / Control

Process Flow / Control

Form / Folder Organization
Logically name forms and folders Order based on Steps

Right Click Menus

Jump to other forms Launch Rules Launch Reports

Task Lists
Guide user through a task list User can check off items as they complete Review completed vs. outstanding tasks

Workflow
Being rewritten due to current limitations Targeted for Talleyrand (next release)

Security

Define Security
PROCESS
1. 2. 3. Setup Groups & Users in Shared Services Assign Access in Planning & Workspace Push Security to Essbase

SETUP USERS & GROUPS IN SHARED SERVICES

Define Groups
ALL_PLANNING_GROUP - Handles basic provisioning tasks Version, Scenario, Accounts ENTITY_PLANNING_GROUPS - Most detail security occurs along the Entity dimension FUNCTIONAL_PLANNING_GROUPS - In charge of a functional area for example margin
detail

Assign Users to Groups

PITFALLS / SUGGESTIONS
Groups within Groups AD Groups vs. Planning Level Groups 11X Apply Security to Folders

Questions
Mark Hite mhite@ranzal.com

Key Considerations for a Successful Hyperion Planning Implementation

June 30, 2010 Mark Hite, Practice Manager Ranzal & Associates